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An employee of Eagle Railcar Services uses a metal grinder during a tank car repair Friday. The company opened in 2015, currently employ 150 people with plans to expand later this year. Torin Halsey/Times Record News

An Eagle Railcar Services welder makes repairs to a large railroad tank car as it sits on jack stands. The company recently installed two 20-ton cranes that can lift a train car for repairs. Torin Halsey/Times Record News

Eagle Railcar Services plant manager James Bullard conducts a tour of the facility for community leaders Friday. The company performs a wide variety of repair, repainting and maintenance services on almost every type of railcar. Torin Halsey/Times Record News

An Eagle Railcar Services worker performs a repair in the mechanical area of the plant on Allendale Road. The company employs 150 people with plans for further expansion. Torin Halsey/Times Record News

Starting with just a few dozen workers, the Wichita Falls Eagle facility has plans to hire on 160-170 total employees in Wichita Falls by the end of the year. A planned expansion would allow them to add 34-60 more workers on top of that.

Eagle President Marc Walraven said in the three years of being in Wichita Falls, his company has invested about $18 million and they plan to invest an additional $2 million during the expansion.

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An Eagle Railcar Services welder makes repairs to a large railroad tank car as it sits on jack stands. The company recently installed two 20-ton cranes that can lift a train car for repairs.(Photo: Torin Halsey/Times Record News)

Eagle Railcar is a leading independent provider of railcar repair services.

They coat the interior of railcars to prepare them to carry various substances and fix and maintain other parts of railcars.

The property can hold up to 350 railcars at a time.

A blasting room runs 24 hours a day with four hoses prepping the interior of carrying vessels.

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Eagle Railcar Services plant manager James Bullard conducts a tour of the facility for community leaders Friday. The company performs a wide variety of repair, repainting and maintenance services on almost every type of railcar.(Photo: Torin Halsey/Times Record News)

The cars are then lined with special paint that is “baked” on with heaters ranging from 175-400 degrees.

Just 10 days ago, Eagle installed two new high-bake heaters in their painting area.

Interiors are painted, scored with a bristle brush to create texture, vacuumed then treated with a second coat of paint.

Different coatings are used for the products carried – which can be products like chemicals, acids and oils.

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Paint booth workers prepare to finish a paint job on a large tankcar at Eagle Railcar Services Friday.(Photo: Torin Halsey/Times Record News)

The mechanical shop area holds up to 16 cars at a time with four to six cars per track inside.

During phase 2 of their expansion, Bullard said they installed two 20-ton cranes that run the length of the shop. The cranes can lift a railcar, allowing employees to work underneath.

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An Eagle Railcar Services worker performs a repair in the mechanical area of the plant on Allendale Road. The company employs 150 people with plans for further expansion.(Photo: Torin Halsey/Times Record News)

In phase 2, Bullard said they plan to add at least two more tracks to the mechanical shop.

From just 15 welders three years ago, James Bullard, plant manager said they now have 38 welders and are looking to hire 18 more in the next 45 days.

To gain larger jobs, the goal for the future is to have a storage yard than can hold a unit train – an undivided 100-110 railcars. Only one site in Texas, another Eagle Railcar facility in Roscoe, can currently accommodate a full unit train.

“We hope to do the same here,” Bullard said.

Currently, the facility can process 20-50 cars at a time. Depending on the scope of work, each railcar can be at the site from 10-50 days.

Future plans include possible expansion both east and west of the current facility.

The west side project would convert half a cinder-block building into paint storage. They will outfit the structure with heating/air-conditioning and use a portion of the building as a training facility.

Right now, Bullard said the break room doubles as their training room and they look forward for the opportunity to offer an up-to-date, dedicated training center. Expansion in this area will also include more parking lot space.

The east expansion includes refurbishing a small existing building, filling and leveling a now-unusable area to turn into their unit train storage yard.

This side will include at least a mile and a half of additional track to allow trains to move directly into the yard.

Bullard said they are blessed that Wichita Falls has Vernon College Skills Center, other technical schools and the Wichita Falls ISD Career Education Center to pull possible new welders and other employees.

He noted after CEC students’ visited on a field trip to the facility, a few hours later several students had already emailed resumes requesting jobs at Eagle when they graduated.

Having a specific skill set is not always necessary when coming into the job, Bullard continued.

Many positions are filled by people who have no previous experience.

“We’ll bring them in and train them. We’re willing to meet them in the middle – if they work hard, we’re willing to give them the resources they need, whether it’s for blasting, painting or valve crew,” he said.

Pearson said when Eagle first came to the city, they struggled to reach potential employees because they were not a well-known company.

They worked with the Chamber, developed great community relationships and now develop most of their hires through word-of-mouth about what a great place they are to work for, Pearson said.

Community leader Reno Gustafson offered Friday to help arrange a partnership program with area colleges and trade schools to facilitate connections between Eagle and talented potential employees.

The WFEDC will be considering at their March meeting partial funding of the Eagle expansion. If approved, the proposal will come before city council for final approval.

If approved, Walraven said they would begin hiring more employees right away.

Successes like Eagle are the reason people voted in favor of the WFEDC years ago, said Henry Florsheim, Wichita Falls Chamber President/CEO.

The WFEDC (4A) allocates sales tax dollars to projects that will stimulate economic activity for the city.